Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,800 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. This web cam is available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon shining down during the night at times. Plus, during the nights you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise and sunset too… depending upon weather conditions.

Aloha Paragraphs

Trade winds picking up, remaining active through the rest of
this work week…then a bit lighter going into the weekend

There will be some passing showers along the windward sides,
mostly at night…a few elsewhere around the state

This looping satellite image shows lots of high cirrus cloudsmoving by to our southeast, and over the Big Island at times

Small Craft Wind Advisory…windiest coasts and channels
around Maui County and the Big Island

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions…as of Tuesday evening

The trade winds will remain active…increasing some later today. Here’s the latestweather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean, along with a real-time wind profile of the central Pacific…focused on the Hawaiian Islands. We have moderately strong high pressure systems located to the northeast and northwest of the state. The models suggest that the trade winds will remain active, with no definite end in sight through the next week at least. Satellite imageryshows high cirrus clouds over parts of the Big Island…at the time of this writing. Looking at this larger looping satellite image, it shows low level clouds riding along in the trade wind flow from east to west, under these high clouds. The high clouds over Hawaii will dim and filter our Hawaiian sunshine at times, at least over the eastern islands locally. Here’s thelooping radar, showing passing showers, which increased as usual last night, but should diminish during the day…and then likely increase again some tonight into Wednesday morning along our windward sides.

Favorably inclined weather conditions, with little change through the weekend. As is often the case, most showers that grace our shores and slopes will occur during the night and early morning hours. There are those typical patches of showery clouds upstream, which will bring moisture our way periodically through the week. The trade winds will be strong enough to carry a few passing showers over to the leeward sides at times too. There’s a chance that our trade winds may ease up a little this weekend, as whatever is left of tropical cyclone Fausto, moves closer to our area later Sunday or early next week. I’ll be back many times during the day with more updates on all of the above, I hope you have a great Tuesday wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Former tropical cyclone Fausto..is now falling apart. This system will fail to push into our central Pacific, as it dissipates far to the east-southeast. The National Hurricane Center has discontinued advisories on fading system. Here’s the NHC graphical track map, a satellite image.

Here on Maui, at the 3,100 foot elevation, at my upper Kula, Maui weather tower, the air temperature was a 56.5 degrees at 550amon this Tuesday morning. Skies are mostly clear, with just the typical capping cloud over the West Maui Mountains.

We’re into the early afternoon now 125pm, under partly cloudy skies, very light winds…and an air temperature of 77.5 degrees.

It’s now early evening at 725pm, under partly cloudy skies, near calm winds…and an air temperature of 72 degrees. It was yet another classic summer day, with all the ingredients to make it near perfect. As for Fausto, the latest satellite images show a rather ragged storm, having lost some of its tight organization…as it spreads out some. TS Fausto may regroup some Wednesday, although by Thursday into Friday, it will begin flagging again. I’m still not worrying about this, what will be the first tropical cyclone to enter the central Pacific, as I think shortly thereafter it will dissipate in fairly short order. By the way, when it enters our central Pacific sometime Friday…it will still be 1000 miles to our east-southeast.

World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

Atlantic Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones expected through the next 2 days

Here’s asatellite imageof the Atlantic Ocean Caribbean Sea:There are no active tropical cyclones expected through the next 2 days

Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones expected through the next 2 days

Meanwhile, there’s disorganized cloudiness and showers located several hundred miles southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula are associated with a trough of low pressure. Development, if any, of this system should be slow to occur during the next day or so while it moves west-northwestward at 10 to 15 mph. After that time, strong upper-level winds are expected to preclude any development.

Northwest Pacific Ocean: Tropical storm 08W (Neoguri) remains active, and will continue weakening over the next several days…as it prepares to move over southern Japan. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with a satellite image.

Interesting: Condors vs. the NRA - Recently scientists from the Zoological Society of London and Yale University assessed the world’s 9,993 bird species according to their evolutionary distinctiveness and global extinction risk.

At number three on the list is the Critically Endangered California condor (Gymnogyps cali­fornianus) – weighing as much as 25 pounds, standing over four foot tall, with a wingspan of almost 10 feet, it is the largest land bird in North America.

Riding on wind currents to heights of 15,000 feet and travelling up to 150 miles a day in search of food, these majestic birds once flew by the thousands above the California land mass and far beyond.

The condor flies again

Sadly, condor numbers dropped so drastically that in 1987 the last living wild condor was taken into captivity and put into a breeding program to save the species.

Now only 238 free-ranging condors – all descendants of captive breeding in the Condor Recovery Program initiated in the early 1980s -inhabit the skies above California, Arizona, Utah, and Baja California. A further 195 are in zoos, captive breeding programs, or being held for release or medical treatment.

This is a far cry from sustainable population numbers but it is also far better than the numbers in April 1987 through 1991 when the North American skies were empty of condors.

Although one of the very first species listed under the Endangered Species Protection Act of 1966, condor populations plummeted for decades. How did things go so wrong?

Humans took a heavy toll: habitat loss and destruction, hunting, egg and specimen collecting, the capturing of live birds, ingestion of DDE (a breakdown form of the pesticide DDT), accidental ingestion of lead from spent ammunition and other assaults, deci­mated the species’ numbers to the point of near extinction.

A third of condors suffer from lead poisoning

Today, most of these problems have been ameliorated. But one huge hazard remains: the leading cause of mortality to condor populations and the number one threat to condor recovery is still lead poisoning from spent ammunition.

A 2012 study by the University of California at Santa Cruz by Myra Kinkelstein and others found that “condors in California remain chronically exposed to harmful levels of lead.”

“30% of the annual blood samples collected from condors indicate lead exposure that causes significant sub-clinical health effects … Furthermore, each year, ~20% of free-flying birds have blood lead levels that indicate the need for clinical intervention to avert morbidity and mortality.”